Valve’s latest Steam Labs experiment is called ‘Play Next,’ and it’s designed to help users choose what to (you guessed it) play next.
The work-in-progress feature uses a machine learning system to tell people which of the unplayed games in their Steam library they’d enjoy the most.
It uses the same technology as the Interactive Recommender to display up to three selections from their library, although if that set doesn’t grab a player’s fancy, they can cycle through to see other suggestions – assuming they have enough unplayed games in their library.
“To help you see at a glance what kind of game each of our suggestions is, we include a microtrailer (on hover), and the top tags for the game. If you’ve already played some comparable games, we show some of those too,” adds Valve.
“The algorithm we use for picking comparable games is also a new system we’re experimenting with in this lab, and it’s a work-in-progress. So don’t be surprised if it sometimes shows you some unexpected comparison points.”
To find out more about the feature, and Valve’s other experiments, you should go and pay a visit to the Steam Labs.